Pandamania VBS 2011

This week Emily's been in Bible School.  She has had such a great time and it took a while to pull her away tonight when it was over.  

The girls were against the boys in raising the most money and they did the old faithful "bring pennies only" trick.  The boys were the blue bucket, the girls were the pink.  Who do you think won? ;)

The losing team in the end had a designated goat kisser.

This was one thing everyone, even parents couldn't wait to see.

Well, he got off easy.  A kid?  Come on!  It was so adorable, not many wouldn't kiss it!  Ok, I wouldn't but still.

Posted

I was finally able to post on our home-school blog today.  We've been busy around here and Emily has been at VBS this week, so when that's over, we will be able to pick up with our reading through the Bible each evening.

The girls are swamped with church activities in July, so I don't know just yet how we are going to stick with our schedule, but we will do our best to.  

Floors come in this week, but until then, it's bedtime for this old lady.

My Other Blogs

Although this blog is a hodgepodge of my life, I've decided to keep my homeschooling blogging separately.  I'm really wanting to keep that area of my life more organized and easier to look back on. I'm also thinking I may have the girls as team members on it if they ever feel the need to post.  You can find it HERE.  (It's still needing some tweaking, though)

We came to a halt before we even got started real well on our Reading Through the Bible blog.  I had planned to start up again last week, but as you know, things didn't work out like I planned.

So, check them out, become a follower, leave comments, etc.  Anything to keep us moving helps.

Mind Blowing

We've all heard it.

No matter what you go through, someone always has it worse than you.

This may be a lesson well learned after today.

A friend of mine and her husband works out of state.  They have been gone from home for a few months now and went home this weekend.  They came home to the remains of their home after it had flooded and they didn't know anything about it until they got there.

These pictures BLOW MY MIND!

This is so tragic!

They were just renting this home.  The neighbor saw water coming from the home and informed the landlord. The landlord came in the home, shut the water off and that was it.  He didn't call my friend to inform them of anything.  He said he didn't see any mold when he had come in.

DUH!

Some people...

I feel for my friends.  It makes my complaints seem so nit picky and pathetic.

I'm now inspired.

I'm not Superwoman!

 Every valley shall be raised up,

every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.

-Isaiah 40:4

I am beyond being overwhelmed.

Sometimes I don't realize it until it's too late and I've found myself in the very depths of despair.  That's where I am now.  I try to be Superwoman too often I think.  When I get overwhelmed, I completely shut down.  Not laid up in the bed sleeping all day depressed, my life still goes on. I'm just not as productive.  If at all.

I've already mentioned before how busy this month was going to be and it has FLOWN by.  I've not had the chance to even do half the things that were planned due to the flooding in the house and all that...blah blah blah.  On a normal day, I would have even had all of it cleaned up, carpet up, and laid new flooring by now.  It has simply stopped me in my tracks this time.  The girls are helping, but when I don't feel like messing with anything, I don't even worry about them doing anything either.  I'm just blah.  There are still so many things that are coming up for the rest of this month and I'm about to pull my hair out.  These are the times and the only times I wish I didn't home-school.  It's hard to think about lesson plans for 3 different aged students and getting everything together for the week.  That alone takes up an entire day.

So, now that I recognize it, even though it's about an hour from bedtime, I think I'm going to brew me a pot of coffee and soak up some Word of God and beat this.  I don't plan on doing any more today, other than that, but I do need some good old fashioned encouragement and inspiration.  We have a busy day tomorrow.

Kitchen Makeover

I'm in remodel mode!

Then again, I always am.

I just get overwhelmed sometimes and don't want to touch anything remodel related.

I think the biggest problem is being financially overwhelmed.  Knowing this entire house could use updating, and the updates I've done are only temporary, it is going to get expensive.

I remember the first home we owned.  Our income wasn't a fraction of what it is now, yet we were still able to bring a house that should have been condemned, to a cute little place we called home.  Why do I feel we can't afford to do that to this place?  Our bills are more plenty now and higher, but still, something can be done.  We just have to be determined to get there.  Just like we were in that little house many moons ago.  A place, we still call home to this day.

The biggest sore spot on my home now is my kitchen.  It is tragic.  No, that's an understatement.  I've never seen an uglier kitchen.  I've brought it far from what it was when we first moved in, but it's still the most annoying room in my home (other than the bathrooms).  I can't put my finger on "why" exactly, but I think it's all of it.

So, with that being said, I've decided to do what I've preached to others about when it comes to buying for something expensive such as an entire kitchen makeover.  I'm going to buy cabinets a little at a time and stick them in storage until I have all I need.  Then, when I have all I need, it's out with the old, in with the new!  I figure this will be easier than saving since once the cabinets are bought, that's not money that can be spent elsewhere.  Sounds like a plan to me.

Maybe doing it this way will be motivation for me.

Now that the expense part is figured out, it's time now to decide exactly what I want.  What color cabinets do I want?  What style?  Oh, the agony!  Decisions, decisions.

One day while we were letterboxing, we passed by our little old house I mentioned above.  There is a house on the corner from that house that I have just always loved.  It is now for sale.  I had never been in that house, despite the fact the elderly woman who lived there always wanted me to bring the girls over for a visit.  I never made the time, but the house just always intrigued me.  So, being the type of person I am, I decided to go take a look and waste the realtor's time.  Yep, I fell in love, but that's not the point I'm making.  I fell in love with the kitchen.  It wasn't anything special, really.  It was small, even.  It had simple, plain white kitchen cabinets and the walls were yellow.  That's still not why I loved it, though.  I loved it because it was a kitchen that was by itself.  It was closed off to the rest of the house with only a door leading from it to the dining room.  It didn't have a closed off "feel", though. 

I know I've said it loads of times before, but that's one of the things I absolutely can't stand about my kitchen here.  It's entirely too open to the large dining room, which in turn, is too open to the living room.  I find it a waste of space where more cabinets could go.  I've looked into having a bar or something dividing the two areas, but that's just not good enough for me.  I thought about it before and decided I wanted french doors being the only way into the dining room from my kitchen, but was talked out of it, for fear it would be too closed off.  So, I went another direction and really loved the new idea.  Not now.  I'm back to wanting french doors that open into my dining room from my kitchen.  I just can't find a photo online to see how it will look exactly.  The way I see it though, it will be just what I'm shooting for.

So, without having a lot of natural lighting in my home, as far as the kitchen area, I'm thinking about going a light color for the cabinets.  Since the room will be closed off to the more modern, darker woods in my home, it won't matter much that it's a different style, right?  I love bright kitchens.

Here are a few pictures I found for inspiration:

Well, I'm using my old computer and it's acting sluggish, so that's all the pictures I'll post for now.  By the looks of it, I guess I'm leaning more toward the lighter side of cabinetry.  It's just really more versatile, I think.

Still don't know what style though. :)

Fried Kool-Aid

A friend of mine was watching the news and saw where a man had fried Kool-Aid.  She got me interested, so I thought I'd search online to find the recipe.  Well, the creator of this treat isn't spilling his recipe, but I did find one, so I gave it a shot.  I wanted to try it with the girls, but they just weren't fast enough.  I had to try it immediately!  Turns out, this stuff is pretty stinking good!  Definitely fair food, just as the creator, Charlie Boghosian made it for.  Check it out here.  

Sorry for the bad photos.  My battery is dead, so I had to resort to the old phone version pics.

Oh, and the recipe doesn't specify the unsweetened, sweetened, or the drink when it says koolaid.  I used the sweetened and still had to add more flour to make it thick enough.

Give it a shot!

Could it be True???

I walked outside this morning to check on the garden and the air felt strange.  There was a cool breeze blowing and I looked up and saw a gray cloud.  WOW!!!  Haven't see that in a while!  So, I decided to look up the weather.  Could it be?  It would be prayers answered from all around!

This is a conversation Emily and I had after I posted this...

Me:  Emily, we may have rain for the next 9 days!

Emily:  What?  Are we going to be raptured?

Me:  What?

Emily:  I mean, do we need to build an ark?

:)

Battle of Floors



I haven't had to do much research on flooring.  I've experienced all types.  So, I knew just what I wanted to replace the carpet in the bedrooms and possibly in the rest of the house in due time.

Wood - Our last house had wood flooring.  It was beautiful and quiet, and easy to do a quick daily sweep through.  After a while, I began to hate it.  I couldn't mop it the old fashioned way.  I tried the wood floor cleaners and every one of them left a haze, taking away the shine.  I could see footprints where the haze would be buffed by the traffic.  I did finally find the perfect way to clean that floor without the haze and that was with a steam mop.  It wasn't a big house, but by the time I steam mopped that floor, I was beat.  Also, it scratched incredibly easy.  Now, this wasn't the old kind of wood floor where it was real planks of wood like the house I grew up in.  It was the fabricated kind (I guess that's what you call it) where if it was scratched, it was scratched, and there was not much you could do to hide it.  You couldn't refinish it. 

Laminate - I've had this kind too.  It was truly durable.  We had a flood in that house too..a terrible one.  We were renting and the house had particle wood sub floors (which I had never seen in a home that wasn't mobile)  When it flooded, the entire house had hills and valleys going all through it where the carpet was. Wow, if you could have seen that!  The kitchen also flooded, but it had laminate in it on top of the particle wood sub floor.  The laminate held it down flat and it didn't even buckle itself.  I was very impressed.  It cleaned easily and maybe it was because I didn't have the sun shining directly on it,  but it didn't seem to streak when I mopped it.  Oh, and I could actually mop it!  I'm not a big Swiffer Wet Jet fan, in case you haven't noticed.  My problem with laminate was the noise it made.  When I walk on one, I feel like I should break out in tap. ;)  I like quiet.

Vinyl - I think every home in America has had some sort of vinyl flooring in it at one point or another.  It quick, easy, and cheap.  It's mostly very recognizable, especially the older kind, but it's easy to clean, probably the easiest, and is what?  Quiet?  Yep!  Not the choice for most people, but I don't have a problem with it.  Lessens the value of your home in comparison to other types, but I'm not selling, even if I threaten to.

Carpet - Although I do love the coziness of carpet, especially in a bedroom, notgonnahappen.

Ceramic  or other Hard Surface Tile - Way too permanent for me.  I know it's not permanent permanent, but having it makes me feel that way.  I wouldn't want to go through the work of tearing it up.  On the other hand, having it on the walls of an older home I've lived in and flooded, it held that water from getting into the other rooms.  I fell in love with it then at that moment.  It's too hard and cold for me though.  I like cozy.  Tile would only be in the wet areas of my home.

So, with all that being said, I've chosen to go with vinyl for the bedrooms.  I'm not getting the sheet vinyl, though.  I'm getting the vinyl planks which makes it easier for me, myself to install.  If there's a place that may get damaged, I can just replace that plank.  Easy peasy.  If it floods again, I haven't lost anything.  It's just the bedrooms for now, so I think this is the easiest, quickest, cheapest, fix out there.  If I don't like it in the long run, I'm not out much money. 

The top left picture looks just like the wood flooring I had in my last home.  It makes me miss that floor, but I know better. ;)

Shabby Chic Bedroom

Taking Morgan along for the ride to Canton was a very wise decision on my part.  Aside from the time spent together and loving all that was to see, Morgan found her style. 

Loving the choice she made, I found an old book I had in my stash and gave it to her for inspiration and for me to know exactly what she's looking for in her bedroom.  I've had this book forever now, and it's finally coming in handy.

As I was getting all the things out of her room to be able to pull up the carpet, I found the book on her bed with Post-Its sticking out of the pages.

Here are her some of her choices:

With all the work that has been done around here and all that's still left to do, Bud offered me a glimpse of hope.  Shamefully, my car hasn't been washed since we came back from the beach, what a month ago?  So, yeah, it still had that salt all over it and it looked horrible.  He asked if he could take it to the car wash and wash it.  Um yeah!  Don't have to ask me again, Son!  Now I'll have a clean ride up to Dallas to get my Morgan.

I've been working on refinishing that 12 buck headboard I bought for Emily's room.  I have no idea really where to go with it.  She is wanting an Indian inspired bedroom with all the deep colors, so I'm trying to figure out exactly what color I should do the furniture.  Right now, it's black, but I'm not sure that's going to work.  We will see.  I'll need to do it in a hurry though, because in about 2 weeks, the flooring will be in and the girls' bedrooms will be beautiful!  Can't wait!  Oh, just can't wait.

How Frugal is TOO Frugal?

I love the look of hardwood floors.  Actually, who doesn't?   I also believe in saving as much money as possible and when it comes to hardwood floors, it can get quite expensive.  There are cheaper alternatives, though.  Laminate, vinyl, etc.  We all know this.  One could even paint a faux wood floor and get off even cheaper.  Are there even less expensive solutions to get that wood look you want?

Apparently, there have been those who have tried.  At least I'm guessing so anyway.  Unless this is a flooring prepping technique even Google couldn't find, I'm thinking this is exactly what this is all about:

I found this under the carpet I was ripping up today.

My main question and concern is this:  

Even IF (highly unlikely) it originally looked like wood, how is tape supposed to be cleaned exactly?  

Floor prep or faux finish, either way, whoever put this tape down, did it meticulously.  

I was afraid of what I was going to find under it.  After all, this is an old home, so surely it has years of people not taking the time to rip out previous flooring.

Whew!  Concrete!  

The tape wasn't even hard to scrape up.  It's still very wet though, so I'm sure that's why.

Still a very long way to go.  I have my work cut out for me, no doubt.

The smell is getting worse and I'm starting to sneeze a lot.  Bad sign of growth I don't want in my home.

The silver lining?  New flooring of course!

Bedtime.

EDITED TO ADD THIS:

I couldn't sleep (due to the smell in the house), so I started scraping more of the "tape" off the floor.  The bigger pieces I was able to detach made me realize it looked more like brown paper bags rather than masking tape.  So, I Googled this technique and sure enough, crazy enough, it exists.

I realize I don't have to scrape all that up for new flooring, but it's obviously wet and it is becoming moldy as well.  I just want to do it right and start fresh and clean.

Our First Garden

Ok, second, but since the first one years ago didn't do anything, we won't count that one.

I was so excited this morning when I walked out to our garden and saw corn silks peeking through!  I've kept an eye on it since the plants topped the other day.  I just checked it yesterday and there was still no sign of anything coming through.  Things do seem to happen overnight here, though.

Our cucumbers seem to be the only thing really progressing.  We are already loaded with them!  Clayton says he doesn't like big cucumbers and wants me to pick them before they get longer than about 7 inches or so.  I have no idea about any of this, so I'm wondering if they will be ripe if I pick them if they are supposed to get bigger.  I don't know what type he planted.  Pointers, anyone?  I'd like to can some pickles too.

My okra is covered in ants.  I read that they don't harm the okra and that they do.  I'm confused.  I want my okra to make it.  If anything in that garden out there is mine, it's the okra.  I could survive on fried okra alone and never get tired of it. Want. Some. Now.

The tomato plants are HUGE.  They are so tall, but with no signs of tomatoes at all.  Maybe it's "a watched pot never boils" type thing, because I have been looking...everyday, several times a day.  Love fresh maters!

The watermelon plants are consuming the entire garden.  We thought we saw a watermelon last week, but can't find it now.  Maybe it wasn't.  I don't know.  I do know, we will have plenty of those as well.

Look at all our green :)

The Verdict is in!

I bought more loot today.  I think it's my goal to go to every Goodwill in every town I pass through.  I had to go to Lufkin today, so decided to stop in there.  I came out with a stash and wanting to go back in with some things I saw but didn't have room in my car for.  One was a wooden high chair.  It is totally what I want.  Another was a cast iron train set.  I did have room in my car for this, just not my buggy. : O  I'll be back.

I'll show pictures of all my stuff when I work on them.

Now, for the verdict:

At first I thought the only thing that was ruined from the flood was Morgan's dresser.  It's from Ikea, so it's particle board.  It saddens me, because it was still well built and very nice.  I fell in love with the size of the drawers and the drawers' frosted glass fronts.  I'm going to keep the drawers though and see if I can built another base around them.  It's hard to let that piece go.  No picture can do it justice, but here's a picture of it from Ikea's website:

It bothers me that this picture doesn't show what it truly looks like. 

Anyway, besides that being ruined, the carpet in all three bedrooms is also.  It wasn't that great to begin with, but it worked.  While Morgan is still in Dallas, the other girls and I are going to start ripping it up, starting tomorrow.  I know, you so want to be in my shoes.  Ripping up carpet isn't all that bad, but it is when it's wet and stinks up the entire house.  Not to mention, I can't stand touching wet carpet.  *shivers* (wet shoelaces do the same thing to me.)  YUCK!

I just want to make all this go away and go make something.

Better Day

The culprit

Well, that and a leaky valve. 

Last night was tough for me.  Even though the hose had busted, it wasn't the only problem.  The valve was leaking too, and by leaking, I really mean pouring.  Even though the valve was shut completely off, I had to stick a 5 gallon bucket under the sink to catch the water because I couldn't turn off the main water.  I had to stay awake to dump that bucket and it filled up about every 30 minutes.  I fell asleep this morning when Allison woke, and she took over. 

Forget waiting until Monday for the plumbers.  I called my Uncle Dudley and he came and fixed it for me.  Yay for Uncle Dudley!

Now, to suck up all the water in the carpets.  The chore isn't over yet.

In the meantime, I worked on one of my junking projects.

Would love to finish the rest, but I have water waiting to be dealt with. 



Such is Life

It is what it is.

For the past few days, the girls and I have been in Dallas.  We have a favorite hotel we stay always stay in while we are there.  It's just nice and clean with a lot of amenities at motel prices.  We did find out the hard way, though, that it's more expensive during the week than on weekends.  Go figure.  Still, it was a very comfortable stay, as always.

We planned to go to Reunion Tower, but it was closed for renovation.  No biggy.  Still loads of things to do.  We got there Wednesday night, so we just had our baths and crashed.  Thursday, we spent a lot of time running the roads trying to find a photo lab I had heard about that develops 120 film.  In the meantime, we stopped at Ritz in Plano, which is where Allison fell in love with a Diana F+ camera.  I've been wanting one too, so I got it for me her.  I've also been wanting a Fisheye 2 camera.  All I needed to hear were the words from Emily, "Mom, can I have a camera too?"  So, I bought me her the Fisheye 2. 

Ahhh, be still my heart.

We still had film to develop, so we pressed on to find that little hole in the wall of a lab.  On the OTHER side of Dallas.  Found it.  Dropped film off.  Pick up next day.  Yay!  Back to the hotel and time for some fun in the pool, pizza, and baseball.

The pizza here is something we look forward to.  It's delicious!  Always!

Later that night, we went for a walk in downtown Frisco.  We tried to get some shots, but we only a few turned out.  It was nice walking in the warm night air.

The film we had processed was from my Holga and here are a few sample shots.  We have a lot more, but since I didn't think to have them put on disc, I'm having to scan each and every one.  I'm loving it.

The bottom shot is an intentional double exposure of our basketball goal and our tubing raft.  Loving. 

We were going to go ahead and stay throughout the weekend, but I had a workshop to go to today in Conroe and something just didn't feel right about staying.  So, Friday evening, we left but took our time getting home.  Since we all had toy cameras, we would stop and just snap whenever we wanted to.  I'm seriously in love with the fisheye.  We had those developed today and did that old fashioned "oohing" and "ahhing" at the photo counter.  We can't remember exactly who took what, but here are a few examples of the Fisheye2. 

It's so much fun!

Once home, we crashed.

Then, this morning, we woke up to this...

Nevermind, I'm not even going to add pictures. 

Anyone who knows my  luck will know just what I'm about to say, I believe.  It has happened to me loads of times before.  I may have even mentioned the last time in this blog somewhere, I don't know.  I believe it is my destiny, Yep, you guessed it, to flood my house.

The very back bathroom in the house sprung a leak.  If you even want to call it a leak.  No, it sprung a waterfall under the sink.  I don't know how it did it overnight.  I can't even imagine it, but it did.  The cold water hose leading up to the faucet has a hole in it bigger than my forefinger.  I can actually stick my finger in it and move it from side to side.  It looks as if it's been chewed, but I don't have rodents.  Why me?  Why? 

Instead of losing my mind, I sat down and thought about what to do.  After a few thoughts and even a few tears,  Allison and I started moving furniture to the dry rooms of the house.  These dry rooms were my dining room, bedroom and laundry room.  That's it.  All three girls' rooms are flooded, the hallway, both back bathrooms, and the living room.  My bathroom and closet were flooded as well.  I'm guessing this is the reason I didn't have a good feeling about staying in Dallas throughout the weekend. 

So, cleaning it all is what we have done today, other than the short break we took to get the film developed and me writing this blog.  Needless to say, I didn't go to that workshop today.

I'm hanging in there, keeping calm.  It's not WHAT I go through, it's HOW I go through it. 

But, I am ready to move.





More Goodies

While in  Humble today, I saw a Goodwill store.  I am in flea market mode, so figured I stop in and check out what they had.  I must say, that was one of the best Goodwill stores I've ever been in.  I think I wound up with something off every shelf and still didn't get all I wanted to.  Needless to say, my buggy was completely full.  I only went in to see what I could find to upcycle.  I found more than I expected.

I may just start really shopping like this because I found 2 very thrifty finds.  Both of those finds were something I've been really wanting.

1.  Headboard for Emily's bed.  $12.00.  Can't beat that with a stick!  Of course, I'm going to refinish it one way or another, but here it is right now.  It's very sturdy, but when I got it home, I noticed a crack in it.  Nothing wood glue can't handle.  Loving it.



2.  Towel warmer.  I have wanted one of these forever, but would never spend the amount of money on what they sell for.  This one?  $6.99.  Works wonderfully!



A closer look:

LOVE this little tea set.  I see some typography in its future.

Hug Mugs :)

These little boogers have a major transformation coming up soon!

Metal and glass, not plastic, so had to grab!

Thinking this may turn towel rack, scarf holder, anything, really.  Wall mounted or tabletop.  We will see.

Love this little beauty!  Can't wait to show you its makeover.

$3 lamp.  Craft room bound.

The two items that make me smile:

This canister is along the lines of what I've been wanting in my kitchen.  I don't necessarily use canisters for what they are labeled for, but I just love this look.  The lid was taped to the canister and it was pretty heavy, so I thought it had the entire set inside.  The price tag was $1.99, so I snatched it in a hurry.  When I got home and tore off the tape, I saw it was only the flour canister.  I also noticed the lid must not be the original lid because it looks too much like a pot lid.  No worries.  I still LOVE it.

Normally, I would have never given this next item so much as the first glance.  BUT, today, as soon as I saw it, I didn't give grabbing it a second thought.  This is why - yesterday I read a blog (that I can't find anywhere tonight to give credit to) where the lady had bought these at a dollar store for a buck.  She separated each little rose and pinned them to a styrofoam ball, making rose balls for decor in her bathroom.  The roses are made of soap, so they have a scent.  I'm not crazy about the scent of these, but hopefully it will fade soon enough.  Still, I'm going to give it a shot and will post pictures as soon as I do.  They were gorgeous!
(will give credit as soon as I find the link!)

I'm one exhausted Mommy right now and we have school tomorrow.  Better get some sleep!

A Bag a Day

We have been in our home for a year and a half and still haven't unpacked everything.  Sad, yes, I know.  Have I mentioned before how we have NO storage?  I think I have.  I blame it on that.

Our previous home had storage galore along with a huge building, so there was room for anything, really.  The last 6 months we lived there, we really utilized the space we had in the building.  We had to leave loads of things behind because we just didn't have room for it all here.  I wish we would have left more behind, but it is what it is.

I'm literally suffocating due to things we have and no place to put them.  Things get moved here and there, but never there's never a permanent home for them.  So, I've decided to just start chunking.

To make it a little easier to get rid of things and not become overwhelmed even more, I've decided to get rid of a bag a day.  It may be things I simply need to trash, or things I'll take up to the local resale shop.  We will see.  Last night I started with things in the kitchen.  All this was trash, of course.  Cereal boxes that had less than a bowl left in them, things we bought/tried/disliked.  Just those types of things that were taking up precious space and would never be used. 

I got two bags out of that.  Tragic.

Why, yes I did take a picture of two bags of trash, thank you very much.

Feels great!

I found a possible home for one of my Canton crates.  Well, I know this won't last long, but it works for tonight.  I'm thinking of hanging them, really, but tonight it sleeps on the counter.

Canton Trade Days

Well, I didn't make it to my niece's birthday party, since the plans for Canton were already made.  Hated to miss it, but LOVED Canton!  I'm so glad we stuck with our plans for once and went.

It was miserably hot.  I don't even want to know what the temp was, but it was still over 100 when we were on the road home at 5pm.  We walked so much, misplaced Morgan for a bit with a dead cell phone, and were finally reunited with her.  WHEW!  I was so upset in thinking how in the world would we ever find her in that crowd.  She found us. 

We spent way too much money on water and soda and not nearly enough on goods.  The one place I really researched and wanted to check out was priced extremely too high.  The rest of the stores we went into were very inexpensive or decently priced.  I had found these right off the bat, waiting on Janet to get there and had them loaded in my car, preparing to fill my arms again.  No wagon, no cart.  Uh, next time for sure!

After an almost complete meltdown from the heat, we found a store we all fell in love with!  "Girls Gone Junkin'".  WOW.  If you love vintage, French country, shabby chic, it's all here.  Beautiful place.  Beautiful and wonderful ladies who run it.  I had a very hard time deciding just what I wanted...until I spotted IT!  THE most wonderful little find.  For. Like. Ever.  Period.

Not the greatest of pictures, but wait until I have the accessories to go with it, including the newborn.  The ladies in the shop told me when I use it for newborn portraits, to send them a picture to put on their website.  I gladly accepted.  I have quite a few little ones standing watch nearby, waiting for their moment to be born.  I can't wait!  Two are twins.  Girls. :)

I'd like to go back in July, but only if I'm able to spend the weekend.  It's hard enough to make it in a day, much less a few hours.  Was much fun, though.